Sheppard Mullin Carries on Long So-Cal Legacy

The Orange County office of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton has received recognition from multiple sources as one of the county’s model employers. The firm was named to the Orange County Register’s Top Workplaces list for 2012 and has been named to the Orange County Business Journal’s Best Places to Work list for the past three years.

Located in Costa Mesa, the Orange County office Sheppard Mullin is one of the Am Law 100 law firm’s 16 offices, which include five international offices and more than 550 attorneys through the firm.

Other Sheppard Mullin offices have also received recognition as model employers by publications in their respective regions, including San Diego, Los Angeles, Century City, Palo Alto, San Francisco, New York City and Washington, D.C. The firm was named a Top 100 Law Firm for Diversity by MultiCultural Law magazine in 2011.

The firm has deep roots in Southern California, extending back to its founding 1927 as Haight & Mathes. In fact, three of the four partners for which the firm is now named – James Sheppard, George R. Richter and Gordon F. Hampton – originally hailed from Orange County.

The Los Angeles-based firm was originally founded by Raymond Haight, a native of Los Angeles and graduate of the University of Southern California, Bill Mathes, a Texan and Harvard Law School alumnus.

Sheppard, Mathes' former law-school roommate, joined the firm a year later, and the firm became Haight, Mathes & Sheppard.

Haight eventually left the firm to form a new one, later running an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign as a third-party candidate. Mullin and Richter worked as law clerks for the firm in 1932, joining the firm upon completing their legal studies in 1933. Hampton joined the firm in 1938.

During World War II, Sheppard left the firm to become the director of the Office of Civil Defense for eight western states, while Mullin received a Navy commission, serving with distinction in both the Normandy invasion and the battle of Iwo Jima. After the war, Mathes was appointed by President Harry Truman to the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, serving until his death in 1967.

The Orange County branch was established in 1977 to meet the needs of one of Southern California's fastest-growing business centers. The office sits amid several of the county’s cultural landmarks, including the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the South Coast Repertory Theater and the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, and is a few blocks from South Coast Plaza.

The firm notes that as the region has grown into a high-technology business hub, so has the list of clients and industries served by the firm’s Orange County office.

The office presently has approximately 60 lawyers, providing full-service legal advice to clients. Attorneys in the local office specialize in bankruptcy, corporate, labor and employment, finance, intellectual property, litigation, real estate and trust and estate matters. The leaders of the firm’s litigation, labor and employment, finance and bankruptcy and intellectual property practice groups are in the office.

Lawyers the office have been involved in large, high-profile transactions and lawsuits, representing the City of Anaheim in a suit against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to determine the proper name for the baseball team, and local school districts during County of Orange's Chapter 9 bankruptcy proceedings. The firm represented a financier of the 73 toll-road construction project, and the State Compensation Insurance Fund Insurance in a year-long unfair-competition trial resulting in a defense verdict for Sheppard Mullin’s clients on all counts.

According to the firm, one factor distinguishing Sheppard Mullin's Orange County office from other law offices is the way in which its careful summer-associate selection process has paid dividends for the office. At present, 12 of the 22 partners in the Orange County office started their legal careers as summer associates with Sheppard Mullin, including seven of the last 10 associates elevated to partner.

Rather than being assigned serially to specific practice groups during the summer, Orange County summer associates are exposed to virtually all the practice groups represented in the Orange County office. A small committee distributes work assignments to ensure that the summer associates participate in a variety of practice areas. The committee also works with the summer associates to match specific work assignments with the interests of the summer associates.

Summer associates are invited to participate in a number of recreational events with the firm. Summer events in 2013 have included an Angels game, bowling, a dinner party at a partner’s home, a weekend retreat, a wine-tasting fundraiser, and a pizza and poker night.

Pro bono work plays an important role within the firm. Attorneys at the Orange County office represent pro-bono clients in a variety of litigation and transactional matters, including domestic violence, family law, and landlord and tenant disputes. The office's commitment to pro-bono legal work is focused primarily on indigent legal services, and it works extensively with the Public Law Center, a pro-bono referral organization where its partners have held leadership positions.

Bill Quinnan is a freelance writer who lives in Orange County. Readers can send e-mail to him at bquinnan@sbcglobal.net. Bill cannot provide job leads.

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